David Byrne said the point he wanted the video to get across was that we're ALL on this road to nowhere, so it had to be crammed full of different folks doing different things, to try to convey the EVERYBODY part. That's why the globe is in it, I think.
@@roger1296 No, you're 100% right, Roger. Jay and Amber listened to it four months ago, and I was not yet aware of these two fine people and their channel at the time. I'm going to give it a watch and a listen right now.
"Two years before R.E.M. proclaimed "It's the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)," Talking Heads shared the sentiment on their single "Road To Nowhere," a deceptively upbeat pop-rock tune about facing a dire future with optimism. "I wanted to write a song that presented a resigned, even joyful look at doom," Talking Heads singer David Byrne recalled in the liner notes of Once in a Lifetime: The Best of Talking Heads. "At our deaths and at the apocalypse… (always looming, folks). I think it succeeded. The front bit, the white gospel choir, is kind of tacked on, 'cause I didn't think the rest of the song was enough… I mean, it was only two chords. So, out of embarrassment, or shame, I wrote an intro section that had a couple more in it."
We need more REM reactions. One thing that needs to be brought up. I think you guys need to pay some respect to 2 incredible talents who lost their battles on this day of April 5th. Kurt Cobain, 4/5/94 and Layne Staley 4/5/02. To me these two are just as important as Jim Morrison, and Janis Joplin. Kurt and Layne with their bands defined a generation. You guys should some tributes to them. Nirvana-Where did you sleep last night from Unplugged, and Alice In Chains- Love Hate Love live in Seattle.
I still remember when a radio station was changing ownership/content and people didn't expect it. The filler content to avoid having radio silence was R.E.M.'s "It's the End of the World as We Know It". Since it was on repeat for multiple days, people started to wonder if something terrible was happening at the station, and that perhaps someone there put that song on repeat as a hidden message, as in "send help, because we might die" or something. But no, they just chose that song to repeat. Oops. Road to Nowhere would have been an interestion alternative.
I never thought about the lyrics to this song, which is historically my default. It used to be hard to figure out the lyrics of songs prior to the internet. Anyway, thinking about this song for the first time, and not ever hearing anyone else's opinions, I asked myself, "Where is nowhere?" And I thought maybe that means there is no destination, life goes round and round like some of the things that appear in the video. We go through life, we die, and the next generation carries on. There's no real development or deep meaning to it. That was my take on this. I didn't see Armageddon or anything until I read these comments.
"Life During Wartime" live version from the concert movie Stop Making Sense. Actually, you might consider doing the whole movie for your other channel. It is one of the greatest concert films ever. edit - just to let you know there is a new version of the film being issued to celebrate its' release 40 years ago ... "Talking Heads - Stop Making Sense will return to theaters in 2023 with a newly restored 4K version via A24. A Deluxe Edition of the legendary concert film soundtrack will be released on a limited edition 2-LP Set And Digitally with two previously unreleased songs on August 18"
Yes, yes, yes to Life During Wartime and DEFINITELY the whole Stop Making Sense movie-- Girlfriend is Better and Slippery People and everything from it!!!
Adding my voice to the chorus clamoring for “Life During Wartime,” especially from the STOP MAKING SENSE (1984) concert film! Also “Girlfriend Is Better” from the same concert film. Just outstanding musical performances and the tunes will definitely stay in your head.
David Byrne is like the love child of Any Warhol and Salvador Dali. Oh, and his neighbor (Marcel Duchamp) was his baby sitter. every time I watch a Talking Heads video I seem to discover some new "take" or meaning hidden in it - and am often left wondering what the "take" says about myself, lol.
You guys really need to react to their "Stop Making Sense" concert film, which is considered by many critics to be one of the greatest concert films of all time. 🏆😎 The creativity, energy and stamina of Talking Heads and the other musicians on stage is incredible! The performance starts out bare, with just singer David Byrne holding an acoustic guitar and pressing the Play button on a cassette tape player. Each successive song adds another band member to the mix and before you know it, the stage is full and the high energy is contagious! You could always break it up into smaller clips for posting. Even if you don't react to it for the channel, you owe it to yourself to check it out and you will not be disappointed! 🔥🎶😎
They're doing a 4K re-release of Stop Making Sense in August 2023, along with a remastered version of the album with 2 previously unreleased tracks. Really looking forward to it.
Saw them back in 1983, probably the best concert I have ever seen in my life, and the tour was later made into the movie Stop Making Sense. Just a few days ago, Seymour Stein passed away and he headed up Sire Records, and was the exec who signed Talking Heads and many more of the new wave acts of the late 70s and 80s, including Madonna. David Byrne and Chris Frantz - the drummer in Talking Heads - remembered him as giving them the opportunity and how much he appreciated and loved the artists he signed. The guy was a visionary and many of these people might never have been heard without him.
When I hear a Talking Heads song my mood instantly gets better. They always make me feel good and through the years they have made me smile more than any other band.
@@robinbrock6552 they played music until they realized it wasnt paying the bills any anymore. People were using it as musical wallpaper til the novelty wore off. They needed shows to get people to come back.
Saw them way, way back at CBGBs. Never forgot the performance of Psycho Killer. They were just starting out. Became a great band with real variety to all their work.
Back in the late ‘90s, I had an assistant manager Connie who had the best Talking Heads story. She saw them playing in a small Chicago club before they had any big success nationwide. She loved the show, and stick around afterwards. She struck up a conversation with Tina as the band was getting drinks at the bar. They got along, so when Tina invited Connie along for their club-hopping night, she said sure! She spent the night dancing with Tina and the rest of the guys at various clubs in Chicago. She thought that Tina got a kick out of having a girl to hang with instead of just the guys in the band.
@Tom I saw them in upstate NY probably around the same time as you did. They played in a small bar just off campus next to a local college. Maybe 100 people in attendance. Psycho Killer was just hitting the airwaves. They brought the house down, I'll never forget it.
A fun note on this: the couple that grows old together in the video are bassist Tina Weymouth and and drummer Chris Frantz, who were a couple when the band formed, and remain together to this day!
So much of their stuff is absolutely genius. The song, "And She Was" should be on your list... a great song with a beautiful blend of youthful innocence, lyrics that paint an experience like a picture, and great music.
I thought 'and she was' is a song about a girl David Byrne met who used to take L.S.D. and practice meditation to have out of body experience, not sure if that counts as youthful innocence but it is one of my favourite songs.
@@warpspasm6652 The youthful innocence is reflected in the choices of description of the girl and her (likely suburban) tripping experience. Songs about a drug experience can still reflect an innocence if it's a part of the person having it. ^^
I always interpreted this song as a statement of "what is this for?" A question we all have at one time or another. Like it seems like we all go through the motions of school, work, marriage, kids, grow old, and die. For what? It can all seem like a road to nowhere. Whether you became "somebody" or remained a "nobody", we all end up dead in the end. Even our experiences disappear in the end. I often think of that and I think this song is kind of about that in my mind.
To me, this song takes what could be nihilistic dread, and steers it in a thoughtfully positive direction. Even if the road is ultimately to nowhere, it’s alright, and temporary meaningfulness can still be important.
Honestly, you guys are my favorite music reactors because you are so willing to explore different artists and genres. I love how open minded you both are to new music. It's great to see you discovering new artists.
I think Amber will love David Byrne's movie he made and starred in back in 1986 "True Stories". It is such a cute and quirky movie about a small Texas town. Lots of great music in it.
You mentioned David Byrne, but the married couple in the video was played by actual married couple (since 1977!) Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz, the bass player and drummer for The Talking Heads. After The Talking Heads broke up, Weymouth and Frantz went on to form The Tom Tom Club which had such hits as “Wordy Rappinghood”, “Genius of Love” (which was reacted to here on 3/3/2022) a cover of “Under the Boardwalk” and my personal favorite, “Suboceana”.
I went to see David Byrne live a few years ago. It wasn't Talking Heads, just him and his band, with one of the most stunning theatrical music concerts I have ever been to. They started this number by candlelight and 3500 people just erupted into applause. So glad I went. The man IS a genius!
I love the Talking Heads. There I was, a UC Berkeley student at a Telegraph Ave coffeeshop one rainy northern California day, and Talking Heads greatest hits playing on the sound system. It became sort of the soundtrack to my life. Don't know if that should scare me, but it all worked out. Same as it ever was.
Since you two have three children, one of them being a toddler, I think you would enjoy “Stay Up Late” by the Talking Heads. It’s very amusing, especially from the perspective of someone who does not have children. 😉
You are one of the few (maybe the only ?) reaction channel that has this connection with the viewers. Summarised perfectly in how you said that there is no way you are going to know the full meaning of a song on the first listen... or know the context or the reason why some songs are such big hits. Sometimes something happened culturally in the world that give birth to a song. Kudos to both of you. Were on this journey together ! Uhh BTW... Talking Heads were masters of opposites imo. The song can be poppy and happy, but the lyrics can be sad or deep. I haven't heard that much of their work, but I like how they smash opposites together.
Love Talking Heads, something you might want to check out is “Stop Making Sense” live concert with a lot of great tunes, “Slippery People” is one of my favourites!
Two years before R.E.M. proclaimed "It's the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)," Talking Heads shared the sentiment on their single "Road To Nowhere," a deceptively upbeat pop-rock tune about facing a dire future with optimism. "I wanted to write a song that presented a resigned, even joyful look at doom," Talking Heads singer David Byrne recalled in the liner notes of Once in a Lifetime: The Best of Talking Heads. "At our deaths and at the apocalypse… (always looming, folks). I think it succeeded. The front bit, the white gospel choir, is kind of tacked on, 'cause I didn't think the rest of the song was enough… I mean, it was only two chords. So, out of embarrassment, or shame, I wrote an intro section that had a couple more in it." Byrne told Q magazine in 1992 how the chorus came first and the rest of the song fell together: "It was just the four lines of what became the chorus that started the whole thing: We're on a road to nowhere Come on inside Takin' that ride to nowhere We'll take that ride That pretty much laid out the whole song. It's this little ditty about how there's no order and no plan and no scheme to life and death and it doesn't mean anything, but it's all right." Drummer Chris Frantz tells a different origin story, saying the song started with a marching cadence he recorded alone in the studio (without a click track). He and Byrne often butt "heads" over contributions and songwriting credits - Byrne is the only writer credited on "Road To Nowhere." After the band put down their tracks, they felt it needed more to flesh it out, so got some help, notably Jimmy Macdonnell of the Cajun group Loup Garou, who played the accordion. Additional personnel include former Tower of Power member and Saturday Night Live musical director of Lenny Pickett on the saxophone; washboard player Andrew Cader (who played it with spoons); and percussionist Steve Scales, who is one of the touring musicians they used in 1983 - he plays a big role in the concert film Stop Making Sense. Singer Lani Groves put together the team of backing vocalists, which included Diva Gray, Gordon Grody, Erin Dickens and Kurt Yahijian. Little Creatures engineer Eric Thorngren told Sound On Sound: "When I told her the configuration we were looking for, she put together that whole thing. They did real gospel, and the blend of that with Talking Heads really took the song to another place. I was just floored." As the closing track on the album, this posed a particular challenge for Thorngren. "Don't forget, there were a lot of unique issues in those days because you had to get the whole album jammed onto a 12-inch record, and of course everybody wanted to close with their biggest song on the worst-sounding groove on the record," he explained. "You had to do all kinds of things to massage it so that the last song could have some power... but you didn't want the record to be too soft. It was always like a game, and so I'd sit in on the mastering to make sure I got the most out of it."
Talking Heads is one of the top 5 to 10 most influential bands of the 80's as it was a MAJOR bringer of "New Wave" to America via MTV (Back when MTV was relevant and actually good). Was fun to see you both get to see another classic video and a track from Talking Heads and the brilliant David Byrne
To understand them, you’d need to hear more. I’ll suggest ‘Cities’. Btw, the couple in the video are Chris and Tina from the band and they are married.
I was a kid when I was introduced to this song in an unusual way...it's the end credits song to "Little Monsters" starring Howie Mandell and Fred Savage! Loved that movie and this song at the end immediately caught my attention, even though I was only 12 or so!
I love this song and is special to me! My friend Wendi would 'steal' her Mom's car & we would blast this song on the radio cruising around Philly as teenagers in the 80s. Good times, for sure. You guys take care and nice review 🙂
OK gang. Here’s the real test if you’re a true lover of Talking Heads… Let’s dig into the “Remain in the Light” album which frankly most people don’t know. I would say start with the song, “The Great Curve”. If you love that then you are a true Heads fan!
FYI - NPR did a fantastic piece on Once In A Lifetime in March 2020. Different people from many different backgrounds from around the world give their interpretations of the song and how much it means to them. I had heard the song hundreds of times, but their perspectives really make you hear it in a whole new light.
I was just looking back at your TH reactions and I saw you never did Stay Up Late by them. You have to do it. It's not they're best ever, but it's sweet and cute and fun. As the best Mama and Papa ever, you will love it!
I'm gonna keep requesting the live version of "Life During Wartime" until y'all finally do it! Haha! It is one of the best, most energetic performances you'll ever see. ""Nothing But Flowers" is another wonderful one with a cool video and message.
You guys can watch them in their concert film Stop Making Sense. Also the 2 people playing the couple throughout the video are Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz who are members of the band. They were married and had their own side band The Tom Tom Club that had some cool hits like Genius of Love. I don't think they were being political, just socially conscious.
I have beeen hundreds of concerts in my life and The Talking Heads are definitely top 3 and probably number 1 I’ve followed for over a year now and thank you for sharing your musical discoveries ❤️❤️
One of my favorite bands of all time. Never got to see them in concert, but I did get to see David Byrne perform in a small club in Pittsburgh in the 90's, which was awesome! You should check out People Like Us, Radio Head, Nothing But Flowers, Totally Nude, Mommy Daddy You and I, and (from David's solo albums) Dirty Old Town, and A Million Miles Away.
And I've seen the other 3/4 of the band perform (at the "Escape from New York" show with Jerry Harrison, Tom Tom Club, Debbie Harry, and The Ramones). Together we've seen the whole band! Haha!
I’ve been begging for them to play Life During Wartime the live version from their concert movie Stop Making Sense. I know they will appreciate them more once they see them live. It’s an incredible performance. I’ll wait months , maybe years for them to get around to it! But when they do I know they will be highly stunned! Maybe we will even get an apology 😂!
Thanks guys! Another cool reaction vid. As for the message, David Byrne has gone on record as saying "song lyrics are overrated". According to Byrne himself, he's always been a man driven by sound more than words. But it's hard to know what to think of this. He's such a deep thinker that's it's hard to imagine he doesn't give any weight to the words in his songs. But the themes strike me as sociological, more than political. There's definitely an interest in people and the perils of western civilisation.
When you live through the creactions of this music the stories around songs become part of your memory of the songs. I know a 60's or 70's protest song and know all it's meanings while listening to it. I also experienced the same things as they. Found memories and sad ones just a part of life.
Amber, a fun song to react to for Female Friday is Janet Jackson’s “Alright”. And yes, that is Cab Calloway (in a Zoot Suit) making a cameo appearance in the video! This song is a lot of fun!
I've always loved the mash up of gospel choir with cowboy songs and cattle-drive sounds that characterizes this song. Headed out into the frontier into literally nowhere.
That video was a signature of film maker Stephen Johnson who did Peter Gabriel's "Sledgehammer" and also Dire Straits's "Money for Nothing". I think the song was a creepy and facetious look at the apocalypse and how religion was always used to comfort that fear but is slowly eroding. I love it but also shudder at its significance
Laughing my ass off at this again. And yeah I've always seen it as extremely positive. They basically state the intent of the song in that acapella intro. They acknowledge that there are problems to be solved, but we are clear-headed, and we know what we want, just give us a little time to get it right. And everybody is welcome to join.
I love This must be the place by the talking heads and road to no where are good as well. David Byrne is so cool. He inducted Radiohead into the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame. Radiohead named their band after one of David’s song !
Hands down the Best Talking Heads song is Psycho Killer they never made an Official video for it plenty of Live videos that are ok but react to audio video titled - "Talking Heads - Psycho Killer (Official Audio)" you'll enjoy David's vocals on this one.
Jordan talks about not understanding songs after a first listen. There are songs I've heard a hundred times (this one, for instance) that I'm not sure I fully understand. I love the song though. The music, the singing, the experience, the feel it gives me, the mood I'm in at the time. It can still be enjoyed despite not 'getting' all of it. Every listen brings out one more detail and that makes for a great song.
We all lived through that apocalyptic time in the late 70's early 80's. The cold war was heating up, Cruise Missiles & ss20's faced each other across Europe, Reagan & Thatcher did their beat to alienate everyone. But we had Talking Heads & other bands that knew the score & kept us sane with their songs & lyrics. Yes try "Life During Wartime" next please.
This is one of my favorites from them. And She Was always reminds me of the days I was using a lot of acid, feels nostalgic that way. This song was a favorite then, and has remained one. This song goes on the same playlist as We Built This City by Starship (né Jefferson Airplane).
As a DJ, and a lover of all music... Talking Heads is the ultimate "Tough act to follow"... most music inspires my mind to play something else, but, Talking Heads, even more than 30 years later, leaves me at "well, how the hell do I follow that?"
The Talking Heads started out as a post-punk art-house band and yes, their music and videos get kind of conceptual at times, especially later in their career as they moved away from their punk origins and embraced a smoother studio pop sound. The cool thing about their art music, though, is that the Heads don't load it up with layer upon layer of symbolism. There isn't always one way to interpret their music and the band's meaning is often pretty simple once you 'get' it. David Byrne said that 'Road To Nowhere' was about how we're all constantly moving closer and closer to our death, but we find purpose and meaning along the way despite knowing that there's a hard stop at the end of the road. Byrne described the song as apocalyptic but also joyous. Here's my take-- your mileage may vary: The song opens with a choir, because the life-journey that we're on and the end awaiting us are mystical and spiritual and intangible as much as physical. If you listen to the drums, they're playing a march, because life is about enjoying the journey as we constantly, continually march closer and closer to the end of the road. And none of the little nonsense bits shown along the way in this video have any meaning to people watching the video as audience members, just like the moments of our life hold deep significance to us as we move through them but don't hold a lot of meaning to anyone else who might be watching from afar. I think it's about taking a moment to appreciate the silly, small moments, because one day we'll run out of those moments and there won't be any more. Enjoy the 'road to nowhere' while it lasts!
David Byrne said the point he wanted the video to get across was that we're ALL on this road to nowhere, so it had to be crammed full of different folks doing different things, to try to convey the EVERYBODY part. That's why the globe is in it, I think.
My appreciation of Talking Heads keeps growing over time....David Byrne is a genius.
Absolute Legends, very underrated and derided!
One of the greatest and most inventive bands of all time. Please play "Wild Wild Life!"
Some of the best rhythm arrangements in music history. I appreciate them more and more as time moves on.
I think they did Wild Wild Life already…I could be wrong.
@@roger1296 No, you're 100% right, Roger. Jay and Amber listened to it four months ago, and I was not yet aware of these two fine people and their channel at the time. I'm going to give it a watch and a listen right now.
you are out of your mind
In my very humble opinion, this is the greatest band ever.
"Two years before R.E.M. proclaimed "It's the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)," Talking Heads shared the sentiment on their single "Road To Nowhere," a deceptively upbeat pop-rock tune about facing a dire future with optimism. "I wanted to write a song that presented a resigned, even joyful look at doom," Talking Heads singer David Byrne recalled in the liner notes of Once in a Lifetime: The Best of Talking Heads. "At our deaths and at the apocalypse… (always looming, folks). I think it succeeded. The front bit, the white gospel choir, is kind of tacked on, 'cause I didn't think the rest of the song was enough… I mean, it was only two chords. So, out of embarrassment, or shame, I wrote an intro section that had a couple more in it."
We need more REM reactions. One thing that needs to be brought up.
I think you guys need to pay some respect to 2 incredible talents who lost their battles on this day of April 5th. Kurt Cobain, 4/5/94 and Layne Staley 4/5/02. To me these two are just as important as Jim Morrison, and Janis Joplin. Kurt and Layne with their bands defined a generation. You guys should some tributes to them. Nirvana-Where did you sleep last night from Unplugged, and Alice In Chains- Love Hate Love live in Seattle.
Thanks for the informative message!
I still remember when a radio station was changing ownership/content and people didn't expect it. The filler content to avoid having radio silence was R.E.M.'s "It's the End of the World as We Know It". Since it was on repeat for multiple days, people started to wonder if something terrible was happening at the station, and that perhaps someone there put that song on repeat as a hidden message, as in "send help, because we might die" or something. But no, they just chose that song to repeat. Oops.
Road to Nowhere would have been an interestion alternative.
I might have misunderstand them but I always thought this song was about a possible nuclear Armageddon!
I never thought about the lyrics to this song, which is historically my default. It used to be hard to figure out the lyrics of songs prior to the internet. Anyway, thinking about this song for the first time, and not ever hearing anyone else's opinions, I asked myself, "Where is nowhere?" And I thought maybe that means there is no destination, life goes round and round like some of the things that appear in the video. We go through life, we die, and the next generation carries on. There's no real development or deep meaning to it. That was my take on this. I didn't see Armageddon or anything until I read these comments.
"Life During Wartime" live version from the concert movie Stop Making Sense. Actually, you might consider doing the whole movie for your other channel. It is one of the greatest concert films ever.
edit - just to let you know there is a new version of the film being issued to celebrate its' release 40 years ago ...
"Talking Heads - Stop Making Sense will return to theaters in 2023 with a newly restored 4K version via A24. A Deluxe Edition of the legendary concert film soundtrack will be released on a limited edition 2-LP Set And Digitally with two previously unreleased songs on August 18"
I've been requesting "Life During Wartime" for months now. Ha! Hopefully one of these days they'll see it.
Yes, yes, yes to Life During Wartime and DEFINITELY the whole Stop Making Sense movie-- Girlfriend is Better and Slippery People and everything from it!!!
Just do the whole concert.
Adding my voice to the chorus clamoring for “Life During Wartime,” especially from the STOP MAKING SENSE (1984) concert film! Also “Girlfriend Is Better” from the same concert film. Just outstanding musical performances and the tunes will definitely stay in your head.
I could not agree more. Stop Making Sense is one of the greatest concert movies ever.
David Byrne is like the love child of Any Warhol and Salvador Dali. Oh, and his neighbor (Marcel Duchamp) was his baby sitter. every time I watch a Talking Heads video I seem to discover some new "take" or meaning hidden in it - and am often left wondering what the "take" says about myself, lol.
You guys really need to react to their "Stop Making Sense" concert film, which is considered by many critics to be one of the greatest concert films of all time. 🏆😎 The creativity, energy and stamina of Talking Heads and the other musicians on stage is incredible! The performance starts out bare, with just singer David Byrne holding an acoustic guitar and pressing the Play button on a cassette tape player. Each successive song adds another band member to the mix and before you know it, the stage is full and the high energy is contagious! You could always break it up into smaller clips for posting. Even if you don't react to it for the channel, you owe it to yourself to check it out and you will not be disappointed! 🔥🎶😎
I think they should react to SMS after hearing a few more Talking Heads album tracks first.
They're doing a 4K re-release of Stop Making Sense in August 2023, along with a remastered version of the album with 2 previously unreleased tracks. Really looking forward to it.
No one ever brings up the fact that "Stop Making Sense" was directed by Johnathan Demme, who also directed "The Silence of the Lambs".
@@JDdiGriz I never realized that. That's hilarious. Kind of makes sense in a way :D
And what's that other film? Had John Goodman in it.
“Nothing But Flowers” has always been one of my favorite TH songs.
I love the whole Naked album.
Saw them back in 1983, probably the best concert I have ever seen in my life, and the tour was later made into the movie Stop Making Sense. Just a few days ago, Seymour Stein passed away and he headed up Sire Records, and was the exec who signed Talking Heads and many more of the new wave acts of the late 70s and 80s, including Madonna. David Byrne and Chris Frantz - the drummer in Talking Heads - remembered him as giving them the opportunity and how much he appreciated and loved the artists he signed. The guy was a visionary and many of these people might never have been heard without him.
I think Belle & Sebastian had a song entitled, Seymour Stein. Back in the 00's.
You're absolutely correct, Seymour Stein was, co-founder of Sire Records, was without a doubt, one of the greatest music executives of all time.
Unfortunately the only band I missed live
When I hear a Talking Heads song my mood instantly gets better. They always make me feel good and through the years they have made me smile more than any other band.
When MTV launched in the early 80’s, some bands got really creative with their music videos. Talking Heads was no exception!
Jerry studied architecture at Harvard and the other three were graduated from Rhode Island School of Design.
@@robinbrock6552 they played music until they realized it wasnt paying the bills any anymore. People were using it as musical wallpaper til the novelty wore off. They needed shows to get people to come back.
Talking heads was doing creative videos before MTV
I love your willingness to keep coming back to Talking Heads -even if they throw Jay for a loop.
Not difficult lol sledgehammer did that so there's not much chance for other songs
Saw them way, way back at CBGBs. Never forgot the performance of Psycho Killer. They were just starting out. Became a great band with real variety to all their work.
Back in the late ‘90s, I had an assistant manager Connie who had the best Talking Heads story. She saw them playing in a small Chicago club before they had any big success nationwide. She loved the show, and stick around afterwards. She struck up a conversation with Tina as the band was getting drinks at the bar. They got along, so when Tina invited Connie along for their club-hopping night, she said sure! She spent the night dancing with Tina and the rest of the guys at various clubs in Chicago. She thought that Tina got a kick out of having a girl to hang with instead of just the guys in the band.
@Tom I saw them in upstate NY probably around the same time as you did. They played in a small bar just off campus next to a local college. Maybe 100 people in attendance. Psycho Killer was just hitting the airwaves. They brought the house down, I'll never forget it.
I just learned that Psycho Killer was inspired by crossing Alice Cooper with Randy Neumann. As in what if they created a song together.
A fun note on this: the couple that grows old together in the video are bassist Tina Weymouth and and drummer Chris Frantz, who were a couple when the band formed, and remain together to this day!
So much of their stuff is absolutely genius. The song, "And She Was" should be on your list... a great song with a beautiful blend of youthful innocence, lyrics that paint an experience like a picture, and great music.
Absolutely right
I thought 'and she was' is a song about a girl David Byrne met who used to take L.S.D. and practice meditation to have out of body experience, not sure if that counts as youthful innocence but it is one of my favourite songs.
@@warpspasm6652 The youthful innocence is reflected in the choices of description of the girl and her (likely suburban) tripping experience. Songs about a drug experience can still reflect an innocence if it's a part of the person having it. ^^
my fave song by them
Talking Heads are always awesome. One of my favorites is Naive Melody (This Must Be the Place). Beautiful song.
"I wanted to write a song that presented a resigned, even joyful look at doom," recalls David Byrne.
Talking Heads: CROSSEYED AND PAINLESS (this song is another level)...
I always interpreted this song as a statement of "what is this for?" A question we all have at one time or another. Like it seems like we all go through the motions of school, work, marriage, kids, grow old, and die. For what? It can all seem like a road to nowhere. Whether you became "somebody" or remained a "nobody", we all end up dead in the end. Even our experiences disappear in the end. I often think of that and I think this song is kind of about that in my mind.
Well said!
To me, this song takes what could be nihilistic dread, and steers it in a thoughtfully positive direction. Even if the road is ultimately to nowhere, it’s alright, and temporary meaningfulness can still be important.
@@0okaminoYes ... I'll take that ride.
Honestly, you guys are my favorite music reactors because you are so willing to explore different artists and genres. I love how open minded you both are to new music. It's great to see you discovering new artists.
I think Amber will love David Byrne's movie he made and starred in back in 1986 "True Stories". It is such a cute and quirky movie about a small Texas town. Lots of great music in it.
Fantastically fun and weird movie!
The radio reception out here is fantastic!
Love that movie
You got more than you think you did! David Byrne is a very outspoken individual and there are a lot of references to our times in a lot of his songs!
You mentioned David Byrne, but the married couple in the video was played by actual married couple (since 1977!) Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz, the bass player and drummer for The Talking Heads.
After The Talking Heads broke up, Weymouth and Frantz went on to form The Tom Tom Club which had such hits as “Wordy Rappinghood”, “Genius of Love” (which was reacted to here on 3/3/2022) a cover of “Under the Boardwalk” and my personal favorite, “Suboceana”.
Love "Suboceana". Such a unique song.
I saw David Byrne in a small club in Indy, The Vogue. It was awesome. He even wore the furry pink suit for a couple of songs.
I went to see David Byrne live a few years ago. It wasn't Talking Heads, just him and his band, with one of the most stunning theatrical music concerts I have ever been to. They started this number by candlelight and 3500 people just erupted into applause. So glad I went. The man IS a genius!
My favorite Talking Heads song! So glad you got to it!
I love the Talking Heads. There I was, a UC Berkeley student at a Telegraph Ave coffeeshop one rainy northern California day, and Talking Heads greatest hits playing on the sound system. It became sort of the soundtrack to my life. Don't know if that should scare me, but it all worked out. Same as it ever was.
Since you two have three children, one of them being a toddler, I think you would enjoy “Stay Up Late” by the Talking Heads. It’s very amusing, especially from the perspective of someone who does not have children. 😉
Talking Heads creativity is another level.
I’m so glad I took a quick little detour from Duran obsession to buy this album and get into their brilliance a bit.
You are one of the few (maybe the only ?) reaction channel that has this connection with the viewers. Summarised perfectly in how you said that there is no way you are going to know the full meaning of a song on the first listen... or know the context or the reason why some songs are such big hits. Sometimes something happened culturally in the world that give birth to a song. Kudos to both of you. Were on this journey together ! Uhh BTW... Talking Heads were masters of opposites imo. The song can be poppy and happy, but the lyrics can be sad or deep. I haven't heard that much of their work, but I like how they smash opposites together.
In my humble opinion I think Talking Heads was more about humanity than politics.
Love Talking Heads, something you might want to check out is “Stop Making Sense” live concert with a lot of great tunes, “Slippery People” is one of my favourites!
Two years before R.E.M. proclaimed "It's the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)," Talking Heads shared the sentiment on their single "Road To Nowhere," a deceptively upbeat pop-rock tune about facing a dire future with optimism. "I wanted to write a song that presented a resigned, even joyful look at doom," Talking Heads singer David Byrne recalled in the liner notes of Once in a Lifetime: The Best of Talking Heads. "At our deaths and at the apocalypse… (always looming, folks). I think it succeeded. The front bit, the white gospel choir, is kind of tacked on, 'cause I didn't think the rest of the song was enough… I mean, it was only two chords. So, out of embarrassment, or shame, I wrote an intro section that had a couple more in it."
Byrne told Q magazine in 1992 how the chorus came first and the rest of the song fell together: "It was just the four lines of what became the chorus that started the whole thing:
We're on a road to nowhere
Come on inside
Takin' that ride to nowhere
We'll take that ride
That pretty much laid out the whole song. It's this little ditty about how there's no order and no plan and no scheme to life and death and it doesn't mean anything, but it's all right."
Drummer Chris Frantz tells a different origin story, saying the song started with a marching cadence he recorded alone in the studio (without a click track). He and Byrne often butt "heads" over contributions and songwriting credits - Byrne is the only writer credited on "Road To Nowhere."
After the band put down their tracks, they felt it needed more to flesh it out, so got some help, notably Jimmy Macdonnell of the Cajun group Loup Garou, who played the accordion. Additional personnel include former Tower of Power member and Saturday Night Live musical director of Lenny Pickett on the saxophone; washboard player Andrew Cader (who played it with spoons); and percussionist Steve Scales, who is one of the touring musicians they used in 1983 - he plays a big role in the concert film Stop Making Sense.
Singer Lani Groves put together the team of backing vocalists, which included Diva Gray, Gordon Grody, Erin Dickens and Kurt Yahijian. Little Creatures engineer Eric Thorngren told Sound On Sound: "When I told her the configuration we were looking for, she put together that whole thing. They did real gospel, and the blend of that with Talking Heads really took the song to another place. I was just floored."
As the closing track on the album, this posed a particular challenge for Thorngren. "Don't forget, there were a lot of unique issues in those days because you had to get the whole album jammed onto a 12-inch record, and of course everybody wanted to close with their biggest song on the worst-sounding groove on the record," he explained. "You had to do all kinds of things to massage it so that the last song could have some power... but you didn't want the record to be too soft. It was always like a game, and so I'd sit in on the mastering to make sure I got the most out of it."
Talking Heads is one of the top 5 to 10 most influential bands of the 80's as it was a MAJOR bringer of "New Wave" to America via MTV (Back when MTV was relevant and actually good). Was fun to see you both get to see another classic video and a track from Talking Heads and the brilliant David Byrne
Genius comes in all forms.
To understand them, you’d need to hear more. I’ll suggest ‘Cities’.
Btw, the couple in the video are Chris and Tina from the band and they are married.
I was a kid when I was introduced to this song in an unusual way...it's the end credits song to "Little Monsters" starring Howie Mandell and Fred Savage! Loved that movie and this song at the end immediately caught my attention, even though I was only 12 or so!
My favorite song from the most eclectic bands in the history of music ✌️💛🤘
It's about growing old and dying we are all on the road to nowhere
I LOVED TALKING HEADS BACK IN THE DAY!!!! Holy crap ... I haven't heard them for decades ... and I owned the Little Creatures album too.
Tina Weymouth on bass and Chris Frantz on drums lift the Heads to another level.
The genius that is David Byrne. Lovely to see you guys! Take care
I love this song and is special to me! My friend Wendi would 'steal' her Mom's car & we would blast this song on the radio cruising around Philly as teenagers in the 80s. Good times, for sure. You guys take care and nice review 🙂
Jay &Amber, You'll love their "Life During Wartime" and "Crosseyed And Painless"!!!
"(Nothing but) Flowers" is another great one
“Life during wartime” is a must… but has to be from the live concert movie… Spectacular!
Yes to both!
@@bobashley7533 yes, from Stop Making Sense.
I bet if you listened again to the song you thought you hated…you might now find you like it…a lot.
One of my favourite bands and songs of all time.
One of my top 10 songs of all time. Thanks for this!
I'll always remember this song playing at the end of the film Little Monsters with Fred Savage. One of my fave films as a kid.
My all-time favorite… When Little Creatures album dropped in 1985 I skipped school to go to the mall and get it… Spent the afternoon just jammin.
OK gang. Here’s the real test if you’re a true lover of Talking Heads… Let’s dig into the “Remain in the Light” album which frankly most people don’t know. I would say start with the song, “The Great Curve”. If you love that then you are a true Heads fan!
My absolute favorite Talking Heads song! ❤
Nothing but flowers is a great tune of theirs also
FYI - NPR did a fantastic piece on Once In A Lifetime in March 2020. Different people from many different backgrounds from around the world give their interpretations of the song and how much it means to them. I had heard the song hundreds of times, but their perspectives really make you hear it in a whole new light.
Another inventive band was They Might Be Giants. Birdhouse in Your Soul is a good song to start with.
As George Harrison once said “If you don’t know where you’re going then any road will take you there”.
I love this one! The Talking Heads are so eclectic and I’ve been here for it since the early 80s.
Love this song which is in the movie Reality Bites- it's a good movie with a great soundtrack -
I was just looking back at your TH reactions and I saw you never did Stay Up Late by them. You have to do it. It's not they're best ever, but it's sweet and cute and fun. As the best Mama and Papa ever, you will love it!
I'm gonna keep requesting the live version of "Life During Wartime" until y'all finally do it! Haha! It is one of the best, most energetic performances you'll ever see.
""Nothing But Flowers" is another wonderful one with a cool video and message.
Thumbs way up to you! You are so right about LDW!!!
My two favorites!
Agree: Take Me To The River is a major fave
A great band with amazing harmony and lyrics. They had lots of fun with their videos and always an upbeat tempo.
You guys can watch them in their concert film Stop Making Sense. Also the 2 people playing the couple throughout the video are Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz who are members of the band. They were married and had their own side band The Tom Tom Club that had some cool hits like Genius of Love. I don't think they were being political, just socially conscious.
I have beeen hundreds of concerts in my life and The Talking Heads are definitely top 3 and probably number 1
I’ve followed for over a year now and thank you for sharing your musical discoveries ❤️❤️
“Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick” by Ian Dury and the Blockheads is another one I highly recommend if you want some more “quirky” pop.
One of my favorite bands of all time. Never got to see them in concert, but I did get to see David Byrne perform in a small club in Pittsburgh in the 90's, which was awesome! You should check out People Like Us, Radio Head, Nothing But Flowers, Totally Nude, Mommy Daddy You and I, and (from David's solo albums) Dirty Old Town, and A Million Miles Away.
And I've seen the other 3/4 of the band perform (at the "Escape from New York" show with Jerry Harrison, Tom Tom Club, Debbie Harry, and The Ramones). Together we've seen the whole band! Haha!
I’ve been begging for them to play Life During Wartime the live version from their concert movie Stop Making Sense. I know they will appreciate them more once they see them live. It’s an incredible performance. I’ll wait months , maybe years for them to get around to it! But when they do I know they will be highly stunned! Maybe we will even get an apology 😂!
I agree, 🤫🤫🤫
I didn't get them until I saw them live.
YES, it is a MUST see!
My favorite song by the Talking Heads.
Thanks guys! Another cool reaction vid. As for the message, David Byrne has gone on record as saying "song lyrics are overrated". According to Byrne himself, he's always been a man driven by sound more than words. But it's hard to know what to think of this. He's such a deep thinker that's it's hard to imagine he doesn't give any weight to the words in his songs. But the themes strike me as sociological, more than political. There's definitely an interest in people and the perils of western civilisation.
When you live through the creactions of this music the stories around songs become part of your memory of the songs. I know a 60's or 70's protest song and know all it's meanings while listening to it. I also experienced the same things as they. Found memories and sad ones just a part of life.
They’re poetic…and I LOVE THEM!
How you can combine such creativity and general weirdness in such incredibly catchy songs. They’re a brilliant band
"Hey let's do this one in a cajun style." "Ok."
Such a great song. One of my favorites from Talking Heads
Describes life perfectly !
Amber, a fun song to react to for Female Friday is Janet Jackson’s “Alright”. And yes, that is Cab Calloway (in a Zoot Suit) making a cameo appearance in the video! This song is a lot of fun!
Love this song
I’m so glad you played it 😊
Watching little monsters in the 80s as a kid I loved this song at the end!
Several years ago, I did a tour around Arizona and Utah with this song blasting out loudly - fantastic stuff!
I've always loved the mash up of gospel choir with cowboy songs and cattle-drive sounds that characterizes this song. Headed out into the frontier into literally nowhere.
That video was a signature of film maker Stephen Johnson who did Peter Gabriel's "Sledgehammer" and also Dire Straits's "Money for Nothing".
I think the song was a creepy and facetious look at the apocalypse and how religion was always used to comfort that fear but is slowly eroding. I love it but also shudder at its significance
David Byrne always has an intellectual message ❤
What I love about the talking heads is their songs are so different there's a song for everyone
I grew up listening to my mom sing talking heads to me often and this was her fav. Its meaning has changed as ive grown up for me personally
Talking Heads - “[Nothing But] Flowers”
you guys HAVE to react to life during wartime from their stop making sense concert film
The Talking Heads are absolutely amazing; Road To Nowhere ❤. Their music saved my life
Another great band that is quirky you may like THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS
Anything off of FLOOD is awesome🤘
Laughing my ass off at this again. And yeah I've always seen it as extremely positive. They basically state the intent of the song in that acapella intro. They acknowledge that there are problems to be solved, but we are clear-headed, and we know what we want, just give us a little time to get it right. And everybody is welcome to join.
I love
This must be the place by the talking heads and road to no where are good as well. David Byrne is so cool. He inducted Radiohead into the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame.
Radiohead named their band after one of David’s song !
Hands down the Best Talking Heads song is Psycho Killer they never made an Official video for it plenty of Live videos that are ok but react to audio video titled - "Talking Heads - Psycho Killer (Official Audio)" you'll enjoy David's vocals on this one.
Jordan talks about not understanding songs after a first listen. There are songs I've heard a hundred times (this one, for instance) that I'm not sure I fully understand. I love the song though. The music, the singing, the experience, the feel it gives me, the mood I'm in at the time. It can still be enjoyed despite not 'getting' all of it. Every listen brings out one more detail and that makes for a great song.
I love the way you said Off Grid Well, we're going off grid like the 80's predicted. God bless you both and your beautiful kiddies
We all lived through that apocalyptic time in the late 70's early 80's. The cold war was heating up, Cruise Missiles & ss20's faced each other across Europe, Reagan & Thatcher did their beat to alienate everyone. But we had Talking Heads & other bands that knew the score & kept us sane with their songs & lyrics.
Yes try "Life During Wartime" next please.
This is one of my favorites from them. And She Was always reminds me of the days I was using a lot of acid, feels nostalgic that way. This song was a favorite then, and has remained one.
This song goes on the same playlist as We Built This City by Starship (né Jefferson Airplane).
@@Spo-Dee-O-Dee Grace Slick was in Starship, yeah? She was in Jefferson Airplane. I figured that was the main through-thread.
This song makes me think about the movie Little Monsters with Fred Savage and Howie Mandel. Anyone else? This song made those closing credits.
Talking Heads is one of my very favourites. "Life During Wartime" from Stop Making Sense is fantastic. Also "This Must Be the Place".
I used to host a rock show at our university radio station called "Road to Nowhere", so this song was the intro every week. 😃
Guys - you really need to be doing Tom Tom Club - a spin-off band from Talking Heads.
As a DJ, and a lover of all music... Talking Heads is the ultimate "Tough act to follow"... most music inspires my mind to play something else, but, Talking Heads, even more than 30 years later, leaves me at "well, how the hell do I follow that?"
The Talking Heads started out as a post-punk art-house band and yes, their music and videos get kind of conceptual at times, especially later in their career as they moved away from their punk origins and embraced a smoother studio pop sound. The cool thing about their art music, though, is that the Heads don't load it up with layer upon layer of symbolism. There isn't always one way to interpret their music and the band's meaning is often pretty simple once you 'get' it. David Byrne said that 'Road To Nowhere' was about how we're all constantly moving closer and closer to our death, but we find purpose and meaning along the way despite knowing that there's a hard stop at the end of the road. Byrne described the song as apocalyptic but also joyous. Here's my take-- your mileage may vary: The song opens with a choir, because the life-journey that we're on and the end awaiting us are mystical and spiritual and intangible as much as physical. If you listen to the drums, they're playing a march, because life is about enjoying the journey as we constantly, continually march closer and closer to the end of the road. And none of the little nonsense bits shown along the way in this video have any meaning to people watching the video as audience members, just like the moments of our life hold deep significance to us as we move through them but don't hold a lot of meaning to anyone else who might be watching from afar. I think it's about taking a moment to appreciate the silly, small moments, because one day we'll run out of those moments and there won't be any more. Enjoy the 'road to nowhere' while it lasts!
One of my most favorite Talking Heads songs ever!
One of my all-time favourite songs.